Rosa and Arwin prepared themselves into their own stances. Arwin instructed, “Being alone in the forest with no one to depend on and being afraid that the king might find me taught me how to stay alive.” Arwin closed her eyes and took a deep breath before continuing, “To go back to your core. The root of one’s power resides in one’s emotion. It can be hatred, love, anger, or pain. The more powerful that emotion is, the more powerful you are but magic- if it becomes too powerful for the user to control, it will devour its user.” Rosa felt a shiver down her spine as she gulped, listening to Arwin. She also closed her eyes as Arwin continued, “Now fear is what hinders you. What do you think is the human’s strongest emotion?” “Love?” Rosa replied, “Or the opposite of it. Hatred.” Arwin said, “Hatred is not the opposite of love. Indifference is.” “Then what is the human’s strongest emotion that will be enough for me to draw out my power?” A

Arwin and Timothy returned back to the village cautiously and still under Arwin’s force field magic made from her black raven aura. There is deafening silence between the two of them. It has been days after Atlas's death, but Timothy did as he said back then. Arwin, to him, is no more than a means to get out of the forest now. In fact, it’s not only them; the rest of the crew is growing distant from one another as the days pass by. It’s as if seeing each other reminded everyone of how they ended up there. After all, isn’t blaming someone else for everything better than facing the truth and blaming yourself? “Do you think they’ll be able to recruit the creatures from the dark part of the forest? I have encountered them, and they will not yield to anyone’s rule, which is why they chose to isolate themselves.” Arwin asked out. Timothy replied without looking back at Arwin, “If it’s Dylan and Sinas, then it’s possible. Let them worry about their endeavors

King Damon spotted Sinas from a distance and smirked; he walked towards them with his long white hair. Age is catching up to King Damon with his wrinkly face and weakening body. King Damon said, “Mark and Dylan, leave us. We have matters to attend to.” Mark and Dylan looked at each other as they hesitantly left, taking opposite directions from each other.  As they left, Sinas got straight to the point and asked, “Give me a couple more days; I’ll definitely give you my move then.” “I am a lot of things, but patience is not one of them.” King Damon remarked, “Give me your answer by then. Give me a reason not to kill your son, Dylan?” Sinas shook from fear- or at least that’s what he showed King Damon; he stammered, “Please. Give me more time.” “That is exactly why you should not bargain with me if you’re not sure if you’re going to win.” King Damon arrogantly stated as he walked back to his throne. Sinas smirked as he turned his bac

Fear was like a parasite that crept through Arwin, infesting her mind and making her paralyzed. But she has been living in fear for a while now; it almost felt like an old friend of hers now. She looked around, seeing the villagers and the rest of her friends, she found herself smiling. She is willing to die for all this. One day. There is only one day left, and Arwin decided to cherish it, looking for her closest friends. First, she paid Rosa and Timothy a visit. She barged through their front door as the couple ate their breakfast. Rosa asked as she yawned, “Arwin? What are you doing here? Is everything okay?” “What? Are there any changes in our plans?” Timothy worriedly asked. Arwin smirked and said, “I just got hungry. That’s why I’m here.” Rosa offered her some meat and a hot cup of coffee, and Arwin sat there with them. It was not eventful, but Arwin’s trying to engrave it in her memory that there was a day where everything is ok

Meanwhile, back at the village, Kite ran towards Rosa and the rest, informing them of the status of Timothy and the others at the castle. Rosa hurriedly started to get the airship ready. Gloin and the rest boarded the airship, and Rosa closed her eyes as she focused her magic from within her and directed it to make the airship fly. Her heart started beating like crazy. The whole plan relied on whether or not she could make that airship fly. She needed to start up the airship with her magic to bring it high enough until the air managed to sustain their flight, and that’s when Gloin’s mechanism would start to work. Rosa tied the rope around her waist to connect her to the airship once it started to fly up. She waited for the clouds to clear up and give way to the moon. The moon looked intimidating with a hint of red spreading- as it’s a drop of blood trying to consume the entire moon. It is indeed the raven’s blood moon. Rosa took a deep